From laura.buhl at state.or.us Tue Mar 3 20:14:55 2015 From: laura.buhl at state.or.us (Buhl, Laura) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 04:14:55 +0000 Subject: [LandUse-News] Land Use News for March 3, 2015 Message-ID: Welcome to this week?s roundup of the Land Use News The Land Use News is an electronic news clipping service provided by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). Land Use News emphasizes local reporting and commentary on land use in Oregon and other states. The links to copyrighted news stories in Land Use News are not archived by DLCD, and the archiving policies of these sources vary. The stories, if available, reside on the site of the original news source. Please direct requests for archived stories, or permission to reprint them, to the original news source. Past Land Use News weekly e-mails may be found here: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/pipermail/landuse-news Anyone may subscribe, unsubscribe, or change their subscription to the free service by visiting this site: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/landuse-news. ________________________________ Bakersfield Turns to Crowdfunding for Downtown Revitalization Plans Planetizen Here's an experiment worth watching: Bakersfield's Downtown Business Development Corporation (DBDC) has launched a crowdfunding website in the hopes of seeing its urban design plans come to fruition. Zillow: Racial divide in US housing 'largely unchanged for more than a century' Oregon Business Real estate website Zillow released a study recently found that the racial gap in house ownership has maintained for over a century. In 1900, whites owned houses at a 28-percent-higher rate than blacks; in 2014, the gap remains 28 percentage points. Twitter Users Hate Public Transportation L.A. Weekly Riding the bus is no bed of roses. And Twitter users across the nation have made it be known that their hometown buses and light-rail systems suck. A team led by Lisa Schweitzer, associate professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, analyzed 64,000 tweets to come up with a look at how well public transportation ranks with the social media generation. The results were published in the Journal of the American Planning Association. How a Start-Up That Wouldn't Break the Rules Was Forced to Fail Pacific Standard Night School just wanted to provide a modest, low-cost bus service from San Francisco to the East Bay. Without expensive lobbyists and venture capital, the rule-abiding company folded after hitting bureaucratic roadblocks. They did everything that Uber and its CEO Travis Kalanick didn't do. Night School aimed to provide late-night transit service between San Francisco and Oakland, supplementing the public bus and train services that provide intermittent, if any, service after midnight ReZoning Los Angeles: Can We Legalize a Walkable City? PublicCEO The City of Los Angeles is facing one of the biggest changes to the way it looks and functions?it is fundamentally updating its zoning code for the ?rst time since 1946. The 1946 code helped shape a postwar city of single-family subdivisions with a growing reliance on cars. Revised zoning rules can hopefully strengthen the ways that a 21st century Los Angeles is transforming and help residents build a city where walking is a convenient and safe way to travel. Zoning is potentially our most powerful tool to create a more walkable Los Angeles. Have Big-Box Superstores Helped To Make Us Fat? National Public Radio ?The study . . . found . . . that the density of restaurants and large-scale food retailers in particular areas was a major factor between 1990 and 2010 in the nationwide rise of obesity . . . .? Taps Start to Run Dry in Brazil?s Largest City: S?o Paulo Water Crisis Linked to Growth, Pollution and Deforestation New York Times As southeast Brazil grapples with its worst drought in nearly a century, a problem worsened by polluted rivers, deforestation and population growth, the largest reservoir system serving S?o Paulo is near depletion. Many residents are already enduring sporadic water cutoffs, some going days without it. Officials say that drastic rationing may be needed, with water service provided only two days a week. Oregon farmer plows new ground with hemp Oregon Public Broadcasting A Southern Oregon farmer is the first in the state to get a license to grow hemp. Farm regulators ponder marijuana oversight Capital Press Marijuana legalization in Oregon has farm regulators pondering how ... Another uncertainty is how marijuana operations fit under Oregon's land use ... Intel map shows long-term plan for humongous Hillsboro expansion Portland Oregonian Five years of construction at Intel's Ronler Acres campus is due to wrap up this year, completing the biggest capital project in Oregon's history. Out-of-state data centers find tax haven in Hillsboro, in exchange for a job or two Portland Oregonian Out-of-state companies have been building data centers in Hillsboro to take advantage of a state program giving them up to five years of property tax breaks worth millions of dollars. In return, the companies promise job creation. Tax cuts for Google Fiber, Comcast and data centers move forward in Oregon senate but cities object Portland Oregonian A legislative committee signed off Thursday on changes to Oregon law that could resolve years of dispute over state taxes on telecommunications companies. Lawmakers hope the bill would open the door for Google Fiber to bring its hyperfast Internet service to the Portland area and prompt Amazon and Apple to resume expansion of data centers they operate in central and eastern Oregon. Answering the call? Eugene Register-Guard Call centers offer plenty of new jobs, but they have drawbacks Transportation tax debate looms in Oregon legislature Portland Tribune As lawmakers consider how to pay for repairs and construction of highways and other projects, one advocate from a national group said recently Oregon is like every other state and also like no other state when it comes to transportation. Oregon mileage tax officially named 'OReGO' as sign-up website goes live Portland Oregonian Oregon's pay-as-you-drive road usage tax has a long way to go before it replaces the increasingly problematic 30-cents-a-gallon state gas tax. Bike panel shifts into high gear The Dalles Chronicle Assist with an update of the Transportation System Plan that was last ... the city public works department and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Swan Island transportation group may shut doors after Metro funding shifts BikePortland.org ... Washington Park but would be unable to market non-car transportation to the park, which includes the Oregon Zoo and other regional destinations. Deadly crash happened at intersection with state-of-the-art crosswalk KVAL A day after 3 children died crossing Main Street, Michael Quatier looked at the crosswalks and pedestrian signals and found himself at a loss. Three children who died Sunday crossing Main Street aren't the first pedestrians to die on that stretch of road - or at that specific intersection. Gorge Commission, Klickitat County sign pact Hood River News In a historic agreement ? nearly 18 months in the making ? Klickitat County will devote planning staff time to help the Columbia River Gorge Commission process land use applications within its borders. Gorge commission faces transition at 'critical time' Vancouver Columbian Already facing a key juncture that will determine its financial future, the Columbia River Gorge Commission has reached another turning point. Executive Director Darren Nichols recently announced that he's leaving the agency in April. He'll become associate director of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, a public policy institute in Seattle. Reservoirs proposed to store energy Eugene Register-Guard -The Columbia River Gorge project would use wind energy to pump water that would later power turbines- A small utility plans a $2.5 billion water reservoir system near Goldendale as a way to store energy generated by Columbia River Gorge wind farms. Users brace for low water Ontario Argus Observer The water year started out promising, with moisture throughout the month of December. January rains kept hopes alive that perhaps eastern Oregon would get the water it needs. National ocean acidification study finds Northwest among hardest-hit regions Portland Oregonian The Natural Resources Defense Council released a report today that won't come as a surprise to Northwest shellfish growers. Ocean acidification--a chemical imbalance in the water caused by carbon dioxide emissions--is hitting the Northwest harder than other parts of the country. Oyster industry threatened by climate change Salem Statesman Journal Ocean acidification threatens coastal economies in Oregon, Washington and 13 other states, a report published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change concludes. Government whistleblowers say Klamath irrigators misusing Federal funds Oregon Public Broadcasting Two government biologists say millions of dollars in federal funds intended to secure water for fish in the Klamath Basin were instead used to directly compensate local farmers and ranchers. Land-use plan vote comes back around Portland Tribune Ballots went out on Thursday for the Tuesday, March 10, special election, in which Damascus voters will again have their say on a resident-initiated comprehensive land-use plan that was voted down last year. Bills would allow Damascus to disincorporate with simple majority vote, enable residents to de-annex again Portland Oregonian A trio of bills introduced in the Oregon State House last week aim to see the city of Damascus disincorporated by the end of 2016, and make it easier for residents to individually deannex in the meantime. Skyline Forest land near Bend sold Bend Bulletin ?Skyline is the view that most of us in Central Oregon see every day,? said Brad Chalfant, executive director of the Land Trust. ?It's a very important ... Report: 13,000 Deschutes Co. homes at high wildfire risk KTVZ Bend -Fire-protection group launches 'Year of Living Less Dangerously'- According to data released Thursday by CoreLogic, nearly 900,000 single-family homes across 13 states in the western U.S., including nearly 13,000 in Deschutes County, are currently designed at "High" or "Very High" risk for wildfire damage, representing a combined total reconstruction value estimated at more than $237 billion. Oregon might lose wildfire insurance Bend Bulletin Private timberland owners and the state officials charged with protecting those lands are both in the dark over how consecutive bad fire seasons will change the way Oregon pays to fight catastrophic wildfires. Council OKs agreement with port Hermiston Herald The city of Umatilla has no immediate plans for the land it agreed to ... The port appealed the decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, but ... Subdivision planned on land occupied by Santa Clara filbert orchard The Register-Guard Subdivision planned on land occupied by Santa Clara filbert orchard ... month by Lee and Bill Kloos, a Eugene land use attorney representing him. Bike path plan off the table Albany Democrat Herald A controversial plan to build a bike path across farmland between Corvallis and Albany has been shelved, at least for now. On Thursday, two days after the Benton County Planning Commission denied a conditional use permit for the project, county public works officials notified the Oregon Department of Transportation that they were withdrawing their request for a $2 million state grant to fund right-of-way acquisition and construction for the next phase of the path. Portland ranks no. 5 nationally for surging rental prices Oregon Public Broadcasting It?s getting harder and harder to maintain Portland?s unofficial tagline where young people go to retire. First, we find out that our city isn?t as youthful as we once thought, and now you definitely need to be employed to afford to live here. More jobs are moving downtown: a Portland think tank finds an urban economic boom Willamette Week The jobs are moving downtown. U.S. cities such as Portland are seeing faster job growth in their downtowns than in the outer neighborhoods and suburbs, according to a report released Tuesday by local think tank, City Observatory. Are Home Prices in New Urbanist Neighborhoods More Resilient? Evidence from Metro Portland Planetizen/JPER The question of what planners can do to create communities that are resilient to housing market downturns is receiving increasing attention. Previous cross sectional studies indicate that New Urbanist homes command premiums compared to similar homes in traditional post-war subdivisions. A new article in JPER (free until March 15) by Hongwei Dong of California State University, Fresno, asks whether New Urbanist developments have been more resilient in terms of recovering from the 2008 real estate crash. Coos bay to endorse revitalize Main Street act The Coos Bay World -Restore Oregon executive director: Bill is investment in communities' history, not charity- Joining leaders of other rural Oregon communities that need downtown restoration, Mayor Crystal Shoji has decided to endorse a state bill that would give property owners incentive to restore historic commercial buildings. Morrow County grants permits for truck stop East Oregonian McLane said permits have gone before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals four times since then, each time over objections raised by Devin Oil ... Bend Grapples With Short-Term Rentals Oregon Public Broadcasting Vacation rentals in many Northwest communities are on the rise, thanks in part to websites like Airbnb. The number of short-term rental permits in Bend has increased from around 50 to more than 500 in the last five years. City-issued permits nearly doubled from 2013 to 2014. Now, the city is struggling to balance the economic interests of tourism with neighborhood livability and to manage the challenges that come with vacation rentals that are smack dab in the middle of residential areas. Cape Foulweather look-out on Oregon Coast added to National Register of Historic Places Portland Oregonian The Look-Out on Cape Foulweather in Lincoln County is among Oregon's latest entries in the National Register of Historic Places, according to information provided by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department's Heritage Commission. Laura Buhl, AICP, CNU-A | Land Use & Transportation Planner Planning Services Division | Transportation & Growth Management Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development 635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 150 | Salem, OR 97301-2540 Direct: (503) 934-0073 | Main: (503) 373-0050 laura.buhl at state.or.us | www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: